‘Drinking in between: Material affordances and technologies of drinking between the Aegean and Central Mediterranean in the Bronze and Iron Ages

Despite being prohibited by a number of world religions, drinking alcohol together represents one of the most diffused ways of socialising. Historians, archaeologists and social scientists have recognised drinking together as crucial in a wide variety of past and modern cultures. However, the different ways in which drinking rituals influence social and cultural change are still poorly understood. This paper approaches this topic by exploring the materiality of social drinking and its relation to long-term social dynamics in one of the oldest regions where drinking emerged on a significant scale. The focus will be on Italy from the earliest evidence available and with a specific focus on the 2nd and early 1st millennium BC before drinking became a trait of an emerging Hellenised, albeit highly diverse and hybridised, identity.